MR. MCCURRY: Good afternoon to you and good morning to
America. And I'm here not because I have anything substantive to
report, but I thought you would like just a brief update.

The Presidents are off to a very intense start in their
discussions. They met for two hours this morning, roughly a half hour
longer than planned, breaking just before 1:00 p.m. for short caucuses.
And they by now have -- I'm sorry, just before 12:00 noon they broke for
some short caucuses and by now are back into a working lunch.

They quickly agreed that they would devote most of their
time at lunch to economic issues and to the progress of economic and
political reform in Russia. They devoted most of their time this
morning to questions related to European security and some of the arms
control issues that were previously agreed to be on the agenda.

I cannot report to you at this point that they have reached
agreements because I think this is a discussion that will evolve as the
day goes on, but they have had a very lively, very intense and very
substantive conversation. Several familiar with the meetings that these
two Presidents have had describe this as by far the most substantive and
intense discussion they've ever had. And I think that is befitting the
subject matter, talking about this relationship and the relationship
both countries have to the continent of Europe as we think ahead to the
21st century.

So a little bit just in terms of the flavor of this
conversation -- they are having some fun with each other. President
Clinton started this morning, as they were waiting for you all to arrive
for the photo opportunity, describing his evening last night. He said
that between the hours of 12:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. there was a series of
loud thumping on the ceiling above him, and he joked with Yeltsin -- he
said, "Boris, I thought you had hired an extra-large Finn to stomp on my
roof," which Yeltsin laughed at. The President then explained that as
near as they could figure, the sauna here at the hotel was above the
President's room and the pipes clank on and off, related to the sauna.
So the President was joking about having not had necessarily the most
restful evening. But they bantered back and forth a little bit about
their evening last night, and then after the departure of all of you
they got quickly down to business.

Q -- complain to the hotel?

MR. MCCURRY: No.

Q I mean, they're charging us for an extra night, you
should -- (Laughter.)

MR. MCCURRY: They had, I'd say, about two-thirds of
roughly the two hours they had together -- about two-thirds of it this
morning devoted to questions related to Europe, European security, and
about roughly a third of the time devoted to arms control issues. And
the discussions on both of those will continue this afternoon.

There are aspects of the conversation this morning that
were not entirely definitive, so they'll come back and review some of
that in both the working lunch and then the second session scheduled for
later this evening -- later this afternoon.

Q -- language prepared for them --

MR. MCCURRY: They are talking -- most of you know, there
has been some effort by the delegation to shape some of the
understandings in textual form and they've talked a little bit about
different formulations. But more importantly I think, they reviewed
philosophically some of the reasons why they feel so strongly as they do
about questions related to the future of Europe. Very substantive
discussion was also described as being non-polemical. This was not an
argument between these two Presidents, but really a very candid and
thorough review of their different positions and done in a very amicable
spirit.

Q How would you square that with "intense" -- not
contentious but --

MR. MCCURRY: Well, intense in terms of substance. This
was in intensively substantive. (Laughter.) Okay. Is that enough, you
can all get on the air at 7:00 p.m.? That's about all I've got for you
now.

Q Is that the characterization you got from the President
or from somebody else?

MR. MCCURRY: From the President and from members of our
delegation. I didn't attempt to talk to President Yeltsin.

Q Republicans have written a letter to the President
unanimously warning against any-last minutes concessions on theatre
missile defense and ABM concessions to the Russians -- that would be
reckless, in their opinion.

MR. MCCURRY: The President intends to make no "reckless"
concessions.

Q Did they reach at least some partial agreement on some
points related to European security, or is there still disagreement on
most points or all points that was the case before the meeting?

MR. MCCURRY: They've had conversations and the
conversations will continue.

Q What do you expect at the end of the summit -- joint
statement?

MR. MCCURRY: I have no way of predicting at this point.

Q How is the NATO-Russia charter shaping up?

MR. MCCURRY: Well, that will shape up when NATO and Russia
and negotiate it long after this meeting. They've had discussions today
about how the United States could reflect some of our view of what the
NATO-Russia relationship should be and they've talked extensively about
that. But it was never our place here to try to codify that agreement
because we'd have to do that as 16, with our partners in the Alliance.

Q -- can you give us any details?

MR. MCCURRY: No, I'm not going to give you any substantive
detail, period, as you can tell.

Q Last week in looking over the Albanian situation --
pretty terrible -- was there any real chance that the U.S. would have
supported NATO intervention, if only to rescue Americans?

MR. MCCURRY: We've reviewed very carefully the security
needs we had as we dealt with the ordered departure of U.S. personnel,
dependents and other American citizens. I'm not going to try to go back
and walk through all that, but they were substantive discussions about
how to protect U.S. citizens who are dealing with that emergency
situation.

Q Are you talking about, like -- airport? I mean,
protecting their exit?

MR. MCCURRY: I'm talking about making sure that they could
accomplish the evacuation that was ordered.

Q Trent Lott is talking about a congressional NATO
observer group that would be involved in negotiations over NATO
enlargement. What's the view of the administration?

MR. MCCURRY: Well, we respect highly the Majority Leader's
views and certainly understand that as we talk about adaptation of NATO
for the future we are talking about questions that the United States
Senate would have to consider. So it might be entirely useful for us to
engage early with the Senate in helping them understand the nature of
our deliberations with Russia, and, more importantly, the nature of
NATO's deliberations with Russia. But the Majority Leader has put forth
a very provocative and very informed set of views on those questions.

Q Can you see members of Congress actually being involved
in negotiations?

MR. MCCURRY: Well, involved in the sense that we consult
regularly and keep apprised key members of the Congress as we conduct
our diplomacy, of course.

Q But not sitting in on --

MR. MCCURRY: It's the job of the Executive Branch to
negotiate agreements and to represent the views of the United States
government as we engage other foreign governments.

Q Is there anything special the President or his advisors
are doing to reassure Yeltsin that NATO expansion is not a threat
against Russia?

MR. MCCURRY: That substantively is exactly what the
President conveyed. He conveyed his vision of the future of Europe,
NATO's role in Europe, and made quite clear that it's nonthreatening to
the Russian people. And he did that, I think, with a great deal of
passion and conviction.

Q Mike, how is he working in his physical therapy today,
or is he not doing it today?

MR. MCCURRY: He'll probably have to do a little bit of
that later. They did some stretches and things like that, but they
didn't get an opportunity to do any real formal therapy today earlier.

Q Can you just give us a sense of the layout of who is in
the room with the President?

MR. MCCURRY: Yes. The Presidents sit -- if you've seen
the footage from the pool spray, that's exactly where they sit -- they
sat in front of that beautiful view out the window of the Glass Palace,
as it's sometimes called, the two Presidents sitting side by side,
accompanied by their foreign ministers, Secretary Albright and Foreign
Minister Primakov. And then National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was
also in the room, and Strobe Talbott, the Deputy Secretary of State was
our note-taker, with the interpreters behind them on both sides.

On the Russian side, Primakov and -- David, did you see,
was it Ryurikov the other person in the room? I'll have to get the
other side. I forgot to look at the other side.

Q Even some Senate supporters of expansion of NATO have
said at some point there could easily be a U.S. backlash when people
realize exactly what the extension of the NATO defense umbrella
includes. What will the President and the administration do as sort of
preemptive strike on that?

MR. MCCURRY: Well, we certainly advance the argument that
the adaptation of NATO for the needs of the 21st century present
extraordinary opportunities for the people of the United States, not
only as we expand the boundaries of a peaceful, democratic Europe under
a security umbrella that keeps everyone safer, but as we share the costs
and benefits of that extension, which is, I think, significant in and of
itself. Others coming to the table; others bringing resources that help
share the burden as we write a new chapter in the future of Europe.

Q What are those opportunities? Can you name two or
three?

MR. MCCURRY: Two or three opportunities that exist? I
think the potential particularly along that central corridor of the
Visegrad that has been the source of so much ethnic conflict in the
history of the lives of people who share ethnic heritages that go back
to Europe, the source of conflict that has destabilized Europe for
centuries, that now having some prospect of being minimized, if not
ameliorated, going ahead to the 21st century. I think every American
who knows the history of our own country in two world wars in the 20th
century would quickly value the prospects for a peaceful Europe as we
think ahead to the 21st. That's a little self-evident in some ways.

Q And would you go along with some doubters who say that
any new nation that enters NATO, especially in the Visegrad as you
called it, should already have in place some sort of border resolution
-- border dispute resolution plan?

MR. MCCURRY: I'm not writing NATO's formula for expansion
here, but there are ways in which we could have expectations that would
exist for new members, and that they would live within the prescriptions
that exist for current membership in NATO and membership in the larger
communities of European nations that are now becoming more fully
integrated.

Q Well, you said that they were going to concentrate on
economics at lunchtime. Are they going to talk about specific packages?
What are they going to do exactly?

MR. MCCURRY: They'll talk about a full range of things
related to economic liberalization, assistance for the transition
occurring in the Russian Federation, how international financial
institutions can be helpful -- the full range of things that you can
usually imagine would be on that agenda.

Yes? Last question.

Q -- evaluation of the Russian military exercises of
yesterday and the day before, the one yesterday which was described by
Tass as the largest Russian military exercise since the --

MR. MCCURRY: I don't have a particular reaction to it, and
I don't and having talked to General Shalikashvili about some matters, I
didn't hear him express any particular concern about it.

Q Will Primakov and Albright be meeting separately today?

MR. MCCURRY: Not that I'm aware of. They've had several
opportunities to caucus tete-a-tete during the breaks in the -- during
the one break in the session so far, and that will likely continue
during the day.

Q Mike, can you tell us whether there was any discussion
of the Baltic states this morning?

MR. MCCURRY: Not yet, to my knowledge.

Q Do you expect it to come up, then?

MR. MCCURRY: I'm sorry, again?

Q Do you expect the Baltic aspect of NATO membership to be
part of the discussion?

MR. MCCURRY: I don't really expect that they will get into
specific countries with respect to the issue of membership.

Q Mike, there were some members of the Duma here yesterday
that made a number of statements about what would happen if NATO
expanded particularly into the Baltic states. They talked about very
harsh consequences for those countries if they decided to join NATO. Is
that a sentiment that you've been hearing from the Russian delegation
itself?

Okay. Our plan still is after the press conference
tonight, we will try to do some type of session back here -- afterwards
and after you are able to return here before we do depart tonight.

Q Will that session here be on camera or off camera?

MR. MCCURRY: I'll think about it.

Q Who's going to do it?

MR. MCCURRY: I'll see.

Q Who will be participating in that?

MR. MCCURRY: It depends. (Laughter.)

Q Okay.

Q Thanks, Mike. (Laughter.)

Q You said the charter has to be discussed with the 16
members of NATO -- reject the proposal of dealing with only five powers?

MR. MCCURRY: Well, the new arrangements for the Alliance
are done as all decisions are done by the Alliance, with the
acquiescence of all members of the North Atlantic Council. So there's
no question of what separate group of people would agree to something.
It would have to be agreed at 16, as all decisions of the North Atlantic
Council have to be taken.

Q Do you expect a joint statement --

MR. MCCURRY: At this point, I'm not suggesting we expect
or don't expect anything. There may be, maybe won't be -- just we'll
see what happens and develops.